God Help the Girl
by Balfabulous
Summary: Villains aren't born, they are made, and these two might just be made for each other. Grant Ward and Leighton Garner get off on the wrong foot when he kidnaps her with plans to use her to torture her mother, but they soon discover a common goal to stop them from punching each other, mostly. She wants to hurt her mother too.


**A/N: This is my first AoS fic… very nervous and want to do the show justice. I'm going to try and work in with S3 as much as I can, but may be forced to take creative liberties come half-time, please forgive me.**

 **I hope that you enjoy, let me know with a review!**

Chapter 01: Target Acquired 

_Culver University, West Virginia Campus_

Andrew Garner's office was a lot like the man, warm and full of knowledge. His desk was a bit of a mess of papers, the only clear space was that surrounding the two photo frames stood facing towards the Doctor. Werner really liked the wooden furniture throughout the room, it made a nice change from the modern outlook of most professor's offices. He also admired the large collection of books the man had, running his hands over some of the titles.

"It's a bit early in the course for you to be tackling those, son." The man himself chuckled deeply. "Come on, sit down."

Werner lowered himself casually into the chair opposite Andrew, the desk positioned between them. Under the guise of placing his backpack on the ground beside him, Werner carefully stuck the listening bug under Andrew's desk.

"Thank you for seeing me, Dr. Garner." Werner smiled winningly. "I understand you've been busy of late, travelling on and off campus."

"Personal matters." Andrew stated simply, steepling his fingers and taking a long look at Werner. "What can I do for you, son?"

"Well, it's about next week's hand in." Werner put a sheepish look onto his face and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I've been sick the past few days, I was hoping I could have an extension?"

"Do you have a medical certificate? I can't help unless you do." Andrew still gave him a small smile. "But I'm sorry to hear you've been unwell."

"Yes, it's right here."

Werner reached into the backpack at his feet, pulling out the falsified medial certificate he'd picked up earlier that day. He reached across the desk to hand it to Andrew, and when he was withdrawing his hand he managed to knock over the two photographs on the desk. Andrew was quick to save one, quickly rightening it before Werner could get a look, but Werner swept up the other before Andrew could.

"I'm so sorry about that, they aren't damaged are they?" Werner withdrew his hand, picture still in it, making as if to check it for cracks while he inspected the image.

The picture showed a young woman, his age or a little older, standing in a garden posed with her arms spread out towards the sky and a beaming grin directed at the camera. She was Asian, but her eyes were green and her face more European in shape, so maybe just part Asian. She was pretty, Werner wouldn't have minded having her at one of his parties to flirt with.

"No, I don't think so." Andrew held out his hand to take the photo back, he placed it next to the other, facing away from Werner.

"Who is she?" Werner asked, all innocent curiosity. "A girlfriend?"

"Definitely not." Andrew laughed at the very idea, and seemed a little disturbed. A fond smile broke over his face. "She's my daughter."

"Daughter?" Werner's gaze flicked from the back of the photo that he knew depicted an Asian girl, to the dark skinned man sitting opposite him.

"Adopted." Andrew clarified quickly. "But she might as well be my own."

"Oh, well I'm glad I didn't damage it." Werner decided not to press for any more details, one had to be careful about such things, Ward would kill him if he gave himself away.

"This all seems to be in order." Andrew checked over the certificate and handed it back to Werner. "I'll put five days extension on for you, will you be alright under that due date?"

"Absolutely, thank you so much, Dr. Garner." Werner reached out to shake the man's hand firmly.

"Alright, stay well, don't want you getting sick again." Andrew flashed another smile, before turning his attention to the papers on his desk, dismissing Werner.

Werner grabbed his backpack, slid the medical certificate back in, and left the office. He walked through the university smiling at other students, occasionally winking if it was a pretty girl, until he was out in the open air. Even then he walked a fair distance away, pausing under a strand of trees and casting around to make sure no one was close. Only then did he pull his phone out of his pocket and dial the most used contact he had in there.

"Werner." Kebo's tone was short. "This better be important, I'm busy."

"Trust me, Kebo, the boss will love this." Werner was grinning. "That woman he's after, Dr. Garner's ex, she's Asian right?"

"Right." Kebo sounded bored already.

"Does Ward know that she has a daughter?"

 **/*0*/**

 _Ward's Unnamed HYDRA Base, Location Classified_

"A _daughter!?_ " Ward's tone shot beyond incredulous by a mile.

"According to the kid." Kebo confirmed.

"How did he find that out? How did I not know that?" The last question was more muttered to himself.

"He was in the Doctor's office and 'accidentally' disrupted his pictures. One of them was a young woman, Asian looking, who Garner said was his daughter." Kebo was grinning. "Seems a bit too coincidental if he just so happened to adopt and Asian-looking girl who is an age where she could be the child of his ex-wife."

"How old did the kid say?" Ward mind was racing even as he adopted a nonchalant pose, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on his desk.

"Twenties, something like that." Kebo shrugged. "This is if the photo was recent."

Ward grunted. "May would've had to have been real young."

"Do you want us to follow it up?"

"Of course I want you to follow it up." Ward spread his hands in a gesture of 'is-that-even-a-question'. "Look into Garner's past, since May's got completely erased courtesy of Skye. Find out this girls name, if she really is May's daughter, hold old she is, where she lives, even her blood type. I want everything, and I want it this evening. I need some bedtime reading."

 **/*0*/**

 _Happy Camper's Campsite, Oregon_

Leighton finally finished checking in the _very_ late arrivals, practically shoving them out of the reception and back towards their van. It was coming on eleven PM, and Leighton was not a night person. Reception was supposed to have closed hours ago, but her boss had asked her to stay late because their family was coming up for a visit. They were supposed to have arrived two hours ago, and Leighton had spent those two hours seriously thinking about quitting. After all, she was working for a boss who wouldn't even stay out to check their own family into the park.

"I don't get paid enough for this." She grumbled to herself, filing the paperwork as quickly as she could, probably getting it wrong.

Not that she cared, she just wanted to get out of there and curl up in bed. IF she didn't get a solid sleep tonight then not even her morning Tai Chi was going to prepare her for the day. She needed that prep as well, joy of joys she was stuck on monitoring mini-golf tomorrow, and she could already hear the loud chattering of small children as she packed up her things.

For probably the hundredth time in the last year she thought about going back to her dad's, maybe getting a job back in the town, but she quickly shook the thought from her head. If she went back then he'd just keep on pressuring her about going back to school, keeping up with her friends, contacting her mom.

A shudder passed through Leighton's body, and her keys pressed hard into her palm as she thought of her mother.

 _No, best not to do that._ She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and letting herself meditate for just a minute to calm down.

When she was done she slung her backpack over one shoulder and flicked off the lights, ducking through the rickety door and locking it behind her. The area was generally pretty dead at this time of night, something Leighton appreciated as she began her brisk walk back to her flat. She walked in the middle of the road, enjoying the freedom of having the space around her. She allowed herself to relax and enjoy the silence around her, there was peace in the dark.

Until her arm flew up to shield her eyes from the sudden onslaught of light from her left. A car she hadn't noticed, black of course, had been parked off the side of the road. Leighton heard doors slamming shut and footsteps moving quickly towards her, squinting through the glare she made out five people coming at her.

She had maybe a split second to act, and she used that to sling her bag down into her hand and fling it at her nearest assailant. They stumbled, but the other four came charging right on in. Leighton dropped to the ground and swept the legs out of two of them, coming up and only just blocking a punch from a third. She wasn't able to parry their other fist though, and air rushed out of her when it connected with her side. She grabbed the arm she had blocked and twisted it, swinging underneath at the same time like she was being twirled in a ballroom dance, she held on until she heard a pop and a scream.

That scream was the last thing she heard before the world went black.

 **/*0*/**

 _In the Car_

Leighton awoke in a darkness similar to the one she had just left, but with more noise and a worse smell. She hated new car smell. That and the low purr of an engine told her that she was in a car, while the darkness led her to the unfortunate conclusion that she was stashed in the trunk of it.

"Uuuurrrghhh."

The groan slipped out of her as she took into account her sore muscles and even sorer head. The former curtesy of the punch-up, the latter thanks to whatever it was that had knocked her out cold. She was guessing something big and _hard_. The back of her head still throbbed. She would have reached up to feel for blood, but her hands appeared to be flexicuffed behind her back, the tough plastic digging uncomfortable into her skin.

That arrangement didn't help the uncomfortable situation being in the trunk placed her in. She was propped slightly on her left, and couldn't really feel that arm, meaning she would have some serious pins and needles when she got out of this.

What _was_ this?

Why had she been attacked, cuffed in the trunk of a car, and where the hell was she being driven to? She wished that she had an idea of how long she'd been out for, that might have helped a little, but not all that much considering she didn't even know what direction they had gone in. Not that that would have helped either. She had flunked out of school, geography included.

Gently Leighton tested her legs, seeing how far they could stretch. They weren't cuffed together so she was able to suss out that the trunk was definitely not as long as she was tall, and was probably about a metre deep and half a metre high. There were a lot of 'ishs' tagged onto the ends of those guesses though.

Geography and trunk-size aside, why was she here? She hadn't exactly been up to… well anything while working at the park the past year. And it wasn't like she had any ghosts in her past that would come and haunt her, life hadn't doled those out to her the way it had to her mom. Oh god. If her mom had something to do with this Leighton was going to absolutely kill her, even thought that meant having to see her, she would do it.

That demon rose up in her chest again, the ugly coil of darkness that reared its head at every thought of her mom. Her dad had tried to help her get rid of it, but she had resisted his efforts. The demon was a comfort, a reminder, she liked it. Still, it didn't make clear thinking easy, so she closed her eyes to meditate it away.

Only when she did that she felt sleep creeping up and putting a soothing arm around her. She opened her eyes and shook it off with a grunt. If she slept then she might miss their stop, and if she missed that then she might miss a window. To take her mind off it she analysed the two choices she had available at present.

Option A: She could start kicking up a fuss and let whoever it was that had tossed her in here know that she was awake and kicking. Well, she would be kicking if she could move. And if she alerted them then maybe they'd come around, pop the boot, and she'd have a chance to get away.

The drawbacks of Option A were the possibility that they wouldn't hear her, she had no idea what kind of car this was, and either they were being super quiet or she'd have to kick a real stink up to get their attention. Or they might not care and drive on and she would just expend valuable energy. Or they might care, pop the boot, she somehow whoops all their asses and does a runner.

Does a runner where?

Option B: She waited, hoping that she could make herself stay awake the whole time, until they reached their destination. Once there they would take her out, she could position herself to kick out and leap from the car. There would be more around, she might be able to grab something and… no, that had the same holes as Option A. But maybe she could reason with them? She was sure that her dad would dip into his savings to pay ransom if they wanted.

In the end she wasn't able to fight of sleep, and the next time her eyes opened the car had stopped. Leighton didn't know if they had been stopped for a while, or if they had just halted and that's what had woken her up. The incredibly muffled sound of doors shutting told her the latter, meaning she once more had only a short time to plan her action.

She ended up going with a combination of A and B. The waiting plan of B (by accident), and the all out attack of A. It was probably not her smartest plan, but she had limited options, and situations like these weren't the time to be questioning the sanity of a plan. As far as she was concerned the entire situation was insane, she was just conforming to her surroundings.

She shifted herself to have her legs facing the door, wormed back so she could get enough thrust to kick upwards, and waited. She heard the latch of the trunk pop, saw a little bit of light around the edges. She tensed up, ready, and when the light flooded in she kicked out while propelling herself upwards and out of the trunk.


End file.
